Holocaust Reparations -- A Growing Scandal

Amanda Luker

| September 15, 2000

Holocaust Reparations -- A Growing
Scandal, Gabriel Schoenfeld, Commentary
Magazine
By the end of World War II, a chilling 53 million people had been
killed in cities, concentration camps and battlefields. Today, over
100,000 Holocaust survivors get monthly pensions from the German
government, and, after five and a half decades, the issue of
Holocaust reparations is recentering itself on the political stages
of the US and Israel. It has also become a site for great
contention. Gabriel Schoenfeld from Commentary
Magazine sorts out the issues complicated by time, asking
some tough questions along the way: Why is interest in Holocaust
reparations piquing at this late date? Who has yet to pay their
fair share--the Swiss banks, the Netherlands? Has the organized
Jewish community itself been pursuing Holocaust claims in a
legitimate manner? After so many years, compensating for losses
(meaning everything from slave labor to stolen artwork, uncollected
bank accounts to stock-exchange holdings) is highly problematic,
but many are fighting for every last mark, with plenty of Holocaust
lawyers (some charging per hour what a survivor receives from the
German government a year) chomping at the bit. Schoenfeld
recommends instead of focusing on financial restitution, an
overhaul on historical thought on the Holocaust is needed: 'To
Abraham Foxman, (Holocaust survivor) the reduction of the Holocaust
to a matter of dollars and cents amounts to a 'desecration' and
'too high a price to pay for a justice we will never achieve'...It
is past time to reconsider.' --Amanda
LukerGo there>>